The Pentrich Rising (the Derbyshire Insurrection) 9 June 1817

he Pentrich Rising was the 'revolution' for which the government had been
waiting. Since the Spa Fields riots in December 1816, Sidmouth,
the Home Secretary in Lord Liverpool's government,
had been receiving reports from his spies and informers that a revolution was
in the making in the north of England. Events such as the march of the Blanketeers,
the threats to 'make a Moscow of Manchester' (burn it to the ground) and the
Ardwick Bridge Conspiracy were seen as evidence of this. The date of the revolution was changed to suit circumstances.

On 23 May, Sidmouth was informed that an insurrection would take place on 9
June. In March, William Richards had offered his services to the government,
promising to gain the confidence of the leading radicals and feed the information
he acquired back to the Home Office. Richards is better known as "Oliver
the Spy". Oliver was sent north by Sidmouth to encourage the risings by
giving promises of support in London.

On 29 May, the Sheffield magistrates raided a secret meeting in the town, which
an informer claimed was planning an insurrection for 10 June. The arrest of
the Sheffield men threw that storm centre of unrest into confusion; on 6 June
a meeting of delegates at Thornhill Lees near Dewsbury was betrayed by Oliver
and the men were seized by troops. Oliver moved on to Nottingham on 7 June where
he assured his contacts that all was ready for a rising on 8 June and that lavish
promises of support from Birmingham and London had been made. The men of Pentrich
had no support, apart from a group of weavers from Holmfirth who set out for
Huddersfield on the evening of 8 June. After exchanging a few shots with the
military, the men escaped into the night. Although two men were arrested and
eventually tried, they were acquitted by the jury.

The principal activist in the Nottingham and Pentrich area was the veteran
radical Thomas Bacon, who had attended the meeting of Hampden Club delegates
in London in January and had been at the Wakefield meeting reported by Oliver.
A framework-knitter and ex-iron worker, he provided OliverŐs main contact. He
was also a travelling delegate between the Midlands, Lancashire, Yorkshire and
London. It was Bacon who suggested Pentrich as the base for the rising, possibly
because of its proximity to the Butterley ironworks which it was hoped to use
for the manufacture of pikes and cannon during the coming insurrection. However,
Bacon took no part in the rising. Its actual leader was Jeremiah Brandreth,
a 27 year old man who had worked in a number of trades, and had only recently
moved into the area. Taking charge a few days before 8 June, he organised support
from the area around Pentrich.

On the evening of 8 June between 50 and 300 stockingers, ironworkers and labourers
from the villages of Ripley, Pentrich, Alfreton, and South Wingfield gathered
and set out to march the fourteen miles to Nottingham, collecting more men and
arms on the way. Brandreth assured his followers that Nottingham would already
be secured, that 100,000 men from other towns would meet them, and that London
would be the next objective. Roast beef, rum and a hundred guineas a man were
promised to those who were reluctant. The prospect of ending the National Debt
and all taxes and releasing some 'great men' from the Tower were also offered.
The men called at farms and houses on the route, demanding arms and support.
At one of these farms , Brandreth demanded entrance to a house where it was
believed there was a gun, fired through the window and killed a farm servant.

Brandreth led his wet, despondent and dwindling party with determination, repeating
rhymes:

Every man his skill must try
He must turn out and not deny;
No bloody soldier must he dread,
He must turn out and fight for bread.
The time is come you plainly see
The government opposed must be.

According to one of Brandreth's commanders, Brandreth "believed the day and hour were fixed when the whole nation
was expected to rise; and before the middle of the week, he believed there
would be hundreds of thousands in arms ... there were men appointed all over
the nation." When they arrived at Nottingham they found none of the support that had been
promised, apart from a group of about a hundred who gathered briefly in Nottingham
Forest with pikes and poles and who dispersed quietly of their own accord. The
Pentrich men fled at the first contact with soldiers and were rounded up during
the next few days.

The Pentrich rising had involved only a few hundred men at most, many of them
effectively forced into taking part during the night march to Nottingham. Armed
with a few guns, home-made pikes, scythes, and pitchforks they killed only one
man during the whole episode. The Government, however, decided to make an example
of them and forty five were tried for High Treason by Special Commission in
Derby in July. Three were hanged, including Brandreth; thirty more were sentenced
to transportation, including Bacon.

A prosecution witness against Brandreth and his colleagues gave evidence at
the trial:

On the morning of Tuesday 10th I went on the road towards Eastwood, where
I met a considerable body of men armed with pikes; I returned to Nottingham
and procured some troops from the barracks ... eighteen privates ... and a
subaltern officer... . When we got as far as Kimberley, a village about four
miles from Nottingham and about two miles short of Eastwood, the people told
us that the mob, on hearing of the soldiers coming, had dispersed; we followed
the route they had taken, and found a quantity of arms, pikes and guns, scattered
about on the road. (State Trials, vol. 32 p.860)

This witness talked about a conversation he had with one of the leaders, before
the rising

I asked him what the poor women and children were to do; he said there would
be a provisional government formed and sent down into the country to relieve
the wives and children of those that were gone away... .

Mr. Cross (for the defence): So that you see these hungry paupers wanted
a provisional government to supply them with food ... that was their idea
of the alteration they proposed of the government. (State Trials, vol.32 pp.809,878)

The Government s reaction could be interpreted as one of genuine alarm but
the sentences were deemed to be excessive. Even more serious for the Government
was the exposure of Oliver's role. This gave the Whigs
and the radical press another stick with which to beat the Tory
administration. Not only could the Government be accused of restricting traditional
liberties, but it appeared to be tricking distressed workmen into conspiracy.

Earl Fitzwilliam, the Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire, wrote to Sidmouth about
this episode, blaming the spy 'Oliver' for what had happened:

There certainly prevails very generally in the country a strong and decided
opinion that most of the events that have recently occurred in the country
are to be attributed to the presence and active agitation of Mr. Oliver. He
is considered as the main spring from which every movement has taken its rise.
All the mischievous in the country have considered themselves as subordinate
members of a great leading body of revolutionists in London, as cooperating
with that body for one general purpose, and in this view to be under its instructions
and directions, communicated by some delegate appointed for the purpose. Had
not then a person pretending to come from that body and for that purpose,
made his appearance in the country, it is not assuming too much to say that
probably no movement whatever would have occurred - it does not follow that
a dangerous - spirit could not have been found lurking in any breast, but
that that spirit would not have found its way into action. (English Historical Documents, vol. II (1783-1832), A. Aspinall and E.A. Smith (eds) Eyre & Spottismoode, 1959 p.332)

Sidmouth himself wrote in reply to the charge that Oliver had caused the Derbyshire
Rising:

The statement is to me incredible but I think it so important as to require
immediate and minute investigation. It is directly at variance with the instructions
given to Oliver and with his communications to Sir John Byng [the Military
commander in the North], as well as to myself... It would have been entirely
inconsistent with the instructions given him by Government if he had in any
instance fomented or encouraged the disaffected to proceed with greater activity
or to greater lengths than they were themselves inclined to do.

Following the Pentrich Rising and other manifestations of discontent, the government
passed the Six Acts in 1819 in an attempt to maintain law and order.